Coping with genetic diversity: the contribution of pathogen and human genomics to modern vaccinology

Lemaire, D.; Barbosa, T.; Rihet, P.

Twin studies have recently established that genetic variation influences the response to hepatitis A and B, diphtheria, tetanus, measles, mumps, rubella, polio, H. influenzae type b, pertussis, and BCG vaccines (44) . Such studies have led to estimate the heritability, defined as the ratio of genetic variance to total variance, of immune responses (14) . Early papers have reported a heritability of 61 and 77% for the antibody response to the hepatitis B surface antigen vaccine in adults (45) and young children (46) , respectively; it should be stressed that high levels of antibody against hepatitis B surface antigen correlate with protection against infection and persistent carriage (47) . The heritability of vaccine responses is generally high (44) , reaching 89% for the antibody response against measles vaccine (16) . It should be stressed that the immune mechanisms responsible for protection are largely unknown for a variety of infectious diseases. Also immunological correlates of protection are needed to monitor the efficacy of vaccines and to study the genetics of protective responses to vaccines (48) .